Shallow ground temperature measurements on the highest volcano of the Earth, the Mt. Ojos del Salado, Arid Andes, Chile
The Mt. Ojos del Salado (6893 m a.s.l.) is situated within the Andean Arid Diagonal, on the Chilean-Argentinean border. Due to the extremely arid climate, surface ice is not widespread on the Mt. Ojos del Salado and at similar high altitude massifs in the region, though ice-bearing permafrost might...
Published in: | Permafrost and Periglacial Processes |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Wiley
2018
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/136901/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/136901/3/balazsnagy_2018_author_accepted_version.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.1989 |
Summary: | The Mt. Ojos del Salado (6893 m a.s.l.) is situated within the Andean Arid Diagonal, on the Chilean-Argentinean border. Due to the extremely arid climate, surface ice is not widespread on the Mt. Ojos del Salado and at similar high altitude massifs in the region, though ice-bearing permafrost might be present. However, the thermal regime of the ground is relatively unknown in the region, especially outside of rock glaciers at high elevations north of 30°S. To study ground thermal regimes, in-situ shallow ground temperature and snow coverage from satellite imagery have been surveyed for four years (2012-2016) at six sites between the elevations of 4200-6893 m a.s.l. on the Mt. Ojos del Salado (27°07ʹS, 68°32ʹW). According to the ground temperature and snow coverage data at the six monitoring sites, the presence of permafrost is unlikely below 4550 m a.s.l. but likely above 5250 m a.s.l. on the Mt. Ojos del Salado. It was also observed that the active layer becomes extremely thin around 6750 m a.s.l. |
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